Is K Mart Fading Away? Who knows!
Is Kmart fading? The super-popular discount department store has just revealed its full finances for the last 12 months, and there’s a worrying development. Kmart profit is down sharply to its lowest level in five years. Kmart used to be the golden child of Australian retail. Everyone loved it and it made heaps of money. But now, as the next graph shows, profit has slipped. The latest results made me concerned about Kmart. I was especially concerned because profit probably should have gone up. Kmart’s fall happened at a time other retailers were rising. JB Hi-Fi increased its profit by 32 per cent. The supermarkets were killing it. Even The Reject Shop did really well, turning last year’s losses into a welcome profit. Kmart is famous for selling wildly popular homewares, many of which become Instagram famous. During the pandemic lockdown, sales of homewares went through the roof as the next graph, from Commonwealth Bank, shows. Spending on household items was up as much as 50-70 per ce...